This is a public forum. Multiplayer games are great fun, but not everyone can be online at the same time, and many times we just end up playing by ourselves, anyway, using bandwidth, and paying for a server. We have decided to try doing some Round-Robin games, to see how it might work out. Take a look to see what we've come up with. Anyone may add one, at any time.

I just realized that this also means that unless we find an abandoned mineshaft, there will be no melons, either!

I have, however, gotten my first slimeballs...just three, but I already have two leads made, with two slimeballs left...just need more string, now. A mineshaft would help with that effort, also.

I now have four white rabbits in the barn, plus 1 white sheep, and 1 chicken inside the fence outside the barn. I'm assuming from what you wrote about the larger animals, that to sheep total is all that's required...or do you want two of each natural color?

I figured I'd go out looking for the horses, as soon as I have a couple more leads. I did see some donkeys, and wrote down the coords for them...do they count? Or should I have two donkeys and two horses?

Now, about the other stuff, I did quite a bit of walk about when I was in the game (I did not cheat and fly) and I can tell you the following:

1. There is a desert out there (it's where I got the cactus that I got to make lime green dye and is growing by the water just before you walk into the "enchanted forest" that goes to the castle).

2. There is a village out there (it's where I got the carrots that I put in what will one day be expanded and be the communal garden (across from my house and above the cavern system).

3. There are horses within a couple hundred blocks of the warehouse so they shouldn't be hard to get back to our area.

I didn't see a jungle biome when I was out walking. Did you just go to the corners or did you check totally within the 3000 and 5000 block radius (you big cheater)? I honestly don't know if there is one out there or not. I just assumed there had to be. I use the cocoa for cookies and for dye. I grow them on the jungle wood in my garden in my games and they will grow in any biome. I also usually prefer to eat watermelon as my go to snack, so if we don't have them, I would miss them. If you feel that you went walk about all you could and really can't find a jungle, then you can use cheats to get the stuff you need for that part of the challenge.

As for the animals, I just want two of each animal so we can start breeding (so two white sheep are fine). I wanted three pairs of rabbits of different colors because soon I hope to have all six colors. These rabbits are all over the place in our map so that shouldn't be a problem. Oddly enough, rabbits will only breed with their own color (or that's what I've found to be true).

Ah! I saw the cacti you planted, but didn't even think about the fact that it had to have come from somewhere!

I went around in circles in the game, without cheating, out to the 500 areas in all directions, and didn't see a desert, jungle, or village, but at one point I was zoning a bit, so I may have missed them. World Painter didn't show a single village, either, but they're small, and I was zoomed out to see the biomes, so--again, I must have just missed it. In the seed, I wasn't as thorough as I could have been because flying gets boring after a while.

So...I'll at least find the desert and the village (because I HAVE to find villages...strange how that has become "my thing.")

I've noticed that about the rabbits, too...they only breed with their own color. I haven't tried (have you?) to "recolor" the rabbits with dye. It probably doesn't work, since there's no reason for the colors other than fun.

I love the melons, too. I would imagine there has to be an abandoned mineshaft down there someplace, even if there's not a jungle, and if I HAVE to get one cocoa bean and one jungle sapling, we'll have them from then on, too. I'll continue to search, though. Hopefully the map won't get unreasonably huge. I can transfer up to 200 MB occasionally (not too often), but after that, I need to stop...sigh.

I hate to fly in a map I'm actually playing because when I find stuff, then I feel like I can't get it once I get back on foot. It's crazy I know.

Anyway, I did go back into the map and do a little flying just to see if I could find a jungle. If you just went corner to corner, I knew there must be a lot of stuff you missed. I flew in one direction and went out 3000 blocks out and then I went over 300 blocks and came back. I did this twice. During that time I found a couple of really large deserts (about 1000 blocks long), 3 desert temples and 3 villages (2 cobble and 1 desert). I also found some swampland (yes, I checked the biome to make sure) close to the castle. I didn't take note of the coords for anything cause I didn't want to know, but I know the direction I took and that everything I saw is less than 3000 blocks away, so...

Anyway, the original desert I found was small and so was the village. They were both about twelve to fifteen hundred blocks out. I have the coords if you need them and want to run out there.

There still may be a jungle out there somewhere, but I just can't fly and look because it totally ruins the game for me. Sorry.

I'll find the villages eventually. I surely didn't mean to spoil the game for you! Please forgive me, and don't be sorry! Each of us has our own way of playing, and what works for one doesn't always work for another! Don't do something like that just for me, please! I believed you when you said you found desert and villages, before! Hope you are still enjoying the game!!!

There's PLENTY of swampland. At first I just wasn't finding any slime, but then I realized I wasn't getting close enough, and wasn't waiting long enough, and it wasn't on the right nights. One place I DID find slime was out by the castle...right where you mentioned, I'm sure. What we don't have, or at least that I've been able to find yet, is a true swamp biome...the swamp and the swampland are slightly different. EDIT just a short while later...well...apparently there no long IS a pure swamp! I just checked up on that, and evidently they deleted the SWAMP biome, now, and there is ONLY SWAMPLAND (or Swampland M--probably more like the original swamp). I just passed through one of those.

I've just finished updating my Brick Mansion Challenge for the first time in a couple of days, and am about to get back into Minecraft. I'll redouble my efforts to find that jungle, plus I'll be going underground a lot, to see if there are any abandoned mineshafts for the melon seeds, just in case!

I found a jungle! It's WAY out there. Somewhere in the middle of it is 6416, 65, 5752. I was too busy running around getting things, that I almost forgot to do the coordinates until I was getting ready to leave.

It took me six days and (very quick) nights (I took a bed with me) to get out there, but I finally found it, plus I passed through a desert with one of those topsy turvy villages in it--right on the edge of a savanna, so everything is all off kilter. I didn't stop, as we already have potatoes and carrots, and my inventory was too full to go gathering books (which we don't need, anyway). I thought about looking for the forge and its chest, but I was on a mission to find a jungle, so I just ran on through in a hurry. It was nice to see it, though!

I brought home about 1-1/4 stacks of cocoa beans, and a fair amount of melon slices, a stack + a few more of jungle wood, and 7 jungle wood saplings.

I took out one row of the pumpkins, and planted melons. Then I placed four jungle stumps around the corners of the garden, and planted cocoa beans on them (some of which are already ripe). I planted the 7 saplings over by the top of the mine entrance. Then I put everything else into the garden chest that I had put out there yesterday.

I did NOT walk all the way back to spawn. I teleported to the warehouse.

Then I spent the next night out in the swampland again, and got three more slimeballs. Those slimes really don't seem to like to come out when I'm there, very much! I need more string. I killed half a dozen spiders on the way to the jungle, but not a single one dropped any string--only eyeballs! Silly spiders!

I just need to get two more pair of rabbits--there are four white ones, because I was experimenting with the breeding thing and how the carrots and the dandelions work. There are now two cows, two sheep, two pigs, and two chickens. The pigs were evidently friends of Henry at one time...they were right over by the castle. They came along quite willingly, but I lost one of my precious leads. I still need more string.

I just thought to look to see if there's any at the castle or in the warehouse! I've been using stuff out of my own chests, and I'm out of string.

I had found donkeys yesterday, when I was looking for a jungle, and jotted down the coordinates. They were at 459, 76, -330. So I went out there to get one of them (I only had one lead right then). I figured that if horses were good, we should also have donkeys.

Well...when I started back with one of the donkeys, I knew it was going to take a little time, because I was about 200 blocks away from the barn, on the X axis and about 500 blocks away on the Z axis. I forgot to reckon on swampland, though, and on my poor sense of direction.

Before I knew it, I was even further away, instead of closer. Thankfully, I had a bed with me, because I had figured I'd have to be out overnight. I got so lost out there in those plains and swamplands, not to mention the extreme hills...sigh...that I ended up sleeping out there three nights, and finally tethering the poor donkey up in a little meado in one of the hills areas, at -472, 78, -305, while I tried to make a decent road back to the barn.

I got about 50 blocks away, and said, "Forget that!" Sheesh! Maybe tomorrow my head will be on more straight and I'll be able to figure out how to go get him from the great distance to which I lured him...sigh. How in the heck I let myself go for over 500 blocks in the wrong X direction, I don't know! I was concentrating so hard on just getting the poor thing through the watery swamplands. He was quite a trooper, actually...no complaining other than a few loud HEE-HAWS when he had to step in water...sigh.

After that, I got the pigs.

So...I just need to get two more pair of rabbits, two horses, and enough string to make a few more leads. Hopefully I'll also bring in at least one of the donkeys. We only need one, in order to make mules, anyway.

Eventually, I'll let the rabbits out, but they get too eager to get out the main gates, so they are locked inside right now. The little white addition at the end of the barn is for inclement weather. The animals went right in, when it was raining hard. Looking at that picture, I realize I forgot to make the lintels over the fence entries (double doors instead of gates, for the horses), one block taller (like on the barn doors--there's another one on the side by the shelter, just inside the fenceline over there). Though horses can go through a 2-block-tall entry, it can get tricky if you're riding one, because you can smother in the upper block if you're not careful, or if the horse rears!

Anyway...I'll fix those tomorrow. I need to get to bed. At least I'm glad I found a jungle!!!

The file is now 219 MB before zipping. I tried zipping it, and it comes down to about 150 MB. This will be the last time I'll be able to pass it, so I'm glad I got to have this chance. Thanks, Lydia!

Woot! Look at you refusing to give up. You found a jungle!!!! I know you love villages so I'm sorry you didn't stay and play a bit at that one. But I can tell you where there are some that are closer and much better. Some of those that I flew over yesterday are really nice looking. I don't have the exact coords, but I can give you the direction.

Everything is looking good and you seem to really be moving in a pretty short time. Great job!

Couldn't you just divide up the file next time? Why couldn't you play?

I killed quite a number of spiders. Was there no string at all in the "mob droppings" chest at the castle? I didn't make a bow or a fishing rod or anything, so I didn't use any string.

BTW, Linda, if you go out the back of your house (to the east) you'll find a flower forest. If you go past that, about 400 blocks out or so, you'll see some nice views in a small plains area -- hint, hint!

I can easily upload and download files that size. The problem is not that...it's our data usage. When I get up to 200 MB, that's 1/5 of a GB. We only have 20 GB to use in a 30-day period. The only reason I can be doing a little more right now is because our data was reset by someone--possibly the tech guy I have been talking to for months, now, because they haven't been able to get the TS3 store points thing to work, yet, with HughesNet.

With all of our computers (six of them) that have to get Microsoft updates, game updates, and other application updates each month, we go through 20 GB pretty fast, and only 10 GB is regular daytime usage. The other 10 GB can be used unthrottled (no speed cut-down) between 2 AM & 8 AM daily. But if we use our 10 GB of regular bytes, before the 18th of each month, our speed gets throttled during the daytime, and our bonus bytes get used instead...at the slower speed.

So I have to be pretty careful about what I download and upload, unfortunately. I do have 5 GB of service on my cell, which we sometimes harness, but I don't use that until I have to. I can purchase more GB on HughesNet as well, or on my cell, but either way, that can get expensive, and both services are already expensive enough.

If I stay to the lower-size downloads, I can do more maps...simple math. The further out we go on any map, the larger the file size gets, in a hurry, unfortunately.

I finished the challenge(s)! Here's an overview of what the main area looks like right now. This includes everything except the castle, which is a little way out. Take the road past the garden...it's a GREAT castle!!!

1. Create a barn/stable/corral/pens. This area should be large enough to have a small pond for the animals and a nice little stack of hay for them to climb on.

Thre are more pictures of the barn, along with the animals, below.

LittlePlains-Complete-Barn.jpg (354.17 KiB) Viewed 432 times

2. Create some leads. There are several swamps near the warehouse and castle, so hopefully finding slime should be easy.

As you may have read in the posts above, it took me a good long time to find enough slime to make these, but I finally got plenty. Then getting STRING was a bigger problem! I finally just stayed out in the plains one night, while I was looking for brown rabbits, and killed the rest of the spiders I needed. Whew!!! I already had three leads, but I was able to make five more, as shown here.

LittlePlains-Complete-Leads.jpg (86.24 KiB) Viewed 432 times

3. Have two of each of the following: horses, pigs, cows, sheep, chickens. Have three sets of rabbit pairs of different colorations. (Animals are all over the area so this really shouldn't be a problem).Horses...

LittlePlains-Complete-Horses.jpg (348.75 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Pigs and Cows...

LittlePlains-Complete-Cow1&Pig1.jpg (414.82 KiB) Viewed 432 times

LittlePlains-Complete-Cow2.jpg (394.88 KiB) Viewed 432 times

LittlePlains-Complete-Pig2.jpg (399.77 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Sheep...

LittlePlains-Complete-Sheep.jpg (359.54 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Chickens...

I thought one of the chickens had escaped, when I went to get photos, but thankfully, the second one walked into view just as I was going, "Oh no!" Whew! This is good, because I had already packed up the file and uploaded it!!!

LittlePlains-Complete-Chickens.jpg (382.35 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Bonus Donkeys...

One of these guys is tame and will wear a saddle. I have no idea which one, now that there are two! I never got a saddle, and after I got the second one in there, I went on to the horses, and forgot to check to see which one was tame...not that it would have done any good, because there's no way to tell unless you try to ride it, unless it has a saddle on it. Good luck finding one of those! I haven't been able to find an abandoned mineshaft, yet, though I've been down in a LOT of big holes in the ground in the last couple of days!!!

LittlePlains-Complete-BonusDonkeys.jpg (376.3 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Guess what? You CAN crossbreed rabbits! There must be dominant colors, I think. Breeding a white and a black rabbit gave me a black bunny--twice. Breeding a white & a brown rabbit gave me a white bunny. Breeding a brown and a black rabbit gave me another black bunny. I was trying to escape having to go out to find another brown rabbit, but I ended up having to go out again, and right away, I found two more...so there are three of them, a number of black rabbits, and quite a few white ones. I got pictures of twos here, because the darned things are all over the place, all the time!!!

White Rabbits...

LittlePlains-Complete-WhiteBunnies.jpg (382.2 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Black Rabbits...

LittlePlains-Complete-BlackBunnies.jpg (404.85 KiB) Viewed 432 times

Brown Rabbits...

LittlePlains-Complete-BrownBunnies.jpg (397.53 KiB) Viewed 432 times

4. Find a jungle and harvest melons and cocoa (and jungle wood to grow it on) to add to the garden.

I harvested the garden once or twice a day after planting the melons and the jungle trees (not in the picture...they are off to the left just a bit). There's a double chest just behind the garden (also not visible in this photo), with tons of stuff in it--including all the melon slices, lots of cocoa beans, and plenty of pumpkins for making pies and/or more jack-o-lanterns for lighting roadways. I also added a BUNCH of sugar cane in there for the cookies and the pies, from my large farm over by my house.

Regardless of Lydia's claim about this being a LITTLE challenge, and therefore EASY...it really wasn't! I promised to do it without cheating, but I didn't quite make it...sigh. I did some investigating for the biomes in Creative...BUT NOT IN THE MAP I WAS PLAYING! I just got the seed and then created another map from the seed, THEN went out exploring. Technically, that's cheating, I suppose. It didn't help. I didn't find a jungle.

Back in the REAL map, I traveled way, way out, and I DID cheat...sigh. I went in as straight a line as I could, figuring I'd have to find one somewhere, that way, and I was going to keep on going until I did. The cheating--I went into Creative when crossing several LARGE oceans! I swam across the first one I came to, and then decided, the heck with it! From then on, until I finally found the jungle, which took six full days and nights out in the wild, sleeping in the portable bed I took with me as soon as it was dark each night, then getting up at daylight and taking off again, I went into Creative and flew over the rest of the large water expanses. I did all the WALKING in Survival.

When I finally did get to a jungle, I rushed around to find the cocoa beans and the melons, and I also brought home saplings & extra wood, so we could have them at the home place, without going out all that far, if necessary! Then...sigh...I teleported back home!

So...I broke my promise, Lydia, but I gathered and built everything in Survival, and I trekked around everywhere, for the most part (stupid oceans). *hanging head in shame, but peeking to see if I'm forgiven...ready to try some tears, if it will work)*In case anyone wants to have it, I've uploaded a sheet of the latest coordinates for the map. If you're downloading it for the first time and just want to explore, please feel free. If you want the page, though, it's here:

(1) There's a great place for a dock, on the beach which can be found at 188 63 2228 (at the "L" of the path that runs from the warehouse, down to the beach, then over to Linda's House). Build a dock there--using any materials you like.

(2) Build six boats, then put them into a chest on the dock, for use transporting to...

(3) ...the fishing and slime-hunting lodge. Pretty much straight out from the new dock, you'll find a part of the swampland that has a nice pad for building a safe and secure lodge where players may go to fish or to hunt slime. Build the lodge and make sure it has a sniping area on the roof that is above the reach of a witch (a couple of floors tall, at least), because the witches DO turn up out there! Be sure to put at least one double storage chest out there, and a basic crafting area.

(4) There's a hidden chest very close to that building pad (hint...neither fire nor water will destroy a chest and its contents). There are several items in there that I gathered from my little villagers over at my place. If you want more of them, please feel free to go and trade with them. There are a few trading goods in the chests there. Just don't let them out, if you can help it. I no longer am constraining them to farming ONLY wheat on one side and ONLY potatoes on the other, because we have a regular community farm, now, so all four little guys can now socialize. But somehow, I've lost two of them over the last couple of days, for no known reason! I replaced them (yes...I summoned them, in Creative, but that's my own area, and it had nothing to do with the second challenge). Anyway...feel free to make use of the guys if you should so choose...just try not to lose them!

(5) The slime like to spawn at least 24 blocks away from players, yet not much further than that, in swampland areas. That gets kind of tricky. The "maze" around the building pad is a little small. Check out the land/water configuration out there, and add to the maze with enough dirt blocks to make pretty sure that slimes will like the new area.

(6) Spend a couple of nights out there (not on moonless or new moon nights--it will be time wasted--the bigger the moon, the bigger the chance of seeing slimes spawn). If slimes appear, please get a photo, and try to get at least six slimeballs to put in the storage chest over there.

(7) Also craft (or inherit from some skeletons) two bows, and provide at least a dozen arrows in the storage chest.

(8) Breed each of the animal species at least once, making sure you don't let any of them out of their pen! You may slaughter if you need supplies (armor, arrows, etc.), but be sure you don't leave the game with less than two of any animal in the barn!!!

(9) If you harvest any of the garden, please be sure to replant.

(10) If you're new to the map, be sure to create your own home (check the guidelines for location parameters, plus how to leave the map when you are done).If you don't know how to upload the large map files, just post here, and I'll PM you some options.